Journal of anxiety disorders
-
Extensive evidence exists for an association between attentional bias (AB; attentional vigilance or avoidance) and anxiety. Recent studies in healthy participants suggest that attentional control (AC) may facilitate inhibition of automatic attentional processes associated with anxiety. To investigate relationships among AC, trauma-related AB, symptom severity and trait anxiety in patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), participants (N = 91) completed self-report measures of AC, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and trait anxiety. ⋯ A similar pattern of results was observed for the relationship between trait anxiety, AC and AB. These results suggest that a low ability to control attention is a risk factor for AB in PTSD. This first clinical study corroborates the accumulating evidence from analog studies that individual differences in top-down attentional control are of considerable importance in the expression of AB in anxious psychopathology.